Image: Netflix
Game adaptations are hot right now, but they’ve arguably always fared better in animation. These are our favourites.
Game adaptations weren’t always as popular as they are today. In the golden age of adapted media we’re living in today - where Arcane, The Last of Us and Castlevania have earned universal acclaim from fans and critics alike - it’s easy to forget that similar adaptations were trounced by fans in the early 2000s due to a severe lack of care in their production. Arcane was clearly made with the utmost care for its characters and source material. The same cannot be said for the 2002-2016 string of live-action Resident Evil flops fans had to suffer through.
Adaptations like these have had a fraught history in live-action, but they do tend to thrive in the animated medium. Cyberpunk: Edgerunners brought renewed interest in CD Projekt Red’s sci-fi game universe, and for good reason. Night City thrives with Studio Trigger’s stylised animation, but it might not look nearly as vivid in live-action. There are plenty of anime based on videogames we’ve loved over the years, but here are our personal Top 10:
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is a beautifully animated sci-fi series that spins out of CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077, following an entirely new cast of characters looking to make a name for themselves in Night City. While the story largely hinges on the actions of protagonist David Martinez, it’s really the impact he has on the people around him that will stick with you in the end. The best part of Edgerunners is that it tells one complete story from beginning to end, with no room for a continuation. You get the full Night City experience in 10 episodes, with all the wacky hijinks, sudden tragedy and tense action that comes with living in its futuristic dystopia.
Arcane
Netflix labels Arcane as an anime, so… sure, why not? Let’s go with that. League of Legends has never been a story-focused game, but it does contain a novel's worth of lore in character biographies and artwork if players take the time to trawl through them. Arcane adapts a seemingly unadaptable game by diving into a few of these characters’ backstories and expanding on the uneasy times they live in. The first season, split between the utopian city of Piltover and crime-ridden underbelly of Zaun, follows sisters Vi and Jinx who grow up together, become separated by fate, and meet again on different sides of a looming conflict.
Arcane has become such a hit that it’s become a pillar of League of Legends’ worldbuilding strategy moving forward, and it’s easy to see why. Never has the game’s story been more thrilling or universally appealing than this.
Castlevania
The best part of Castlevania is that you don’t need to play Castlevania to adore it. This is a good old fashioned vampire horror show featuring sorcery, winged beasts and the last monster hunter you’d ever want to hire. The series follows Trevor Belmont - the only surviving member of a legendary monster-hunting family - as he goes up against Dracula and his forces of evil. The series’ fantastic voice acting and characters will suck you in, and hopefully tempt you over to its just-as-good sequel Castlevania: Nocturne.
Nier: Automata Ver 1.1a
Nier: Automata Ver 1.1a is a stellar adaptation of the titular game, though as its 1.1a title suggests, it does provide a few embellishments to its story. The anime follows 2B and 9S, two man-made androids who fight to take Earth back from alien-made machine invaders. As the two continue to execute their tasks unquestioningly, they stumble upon a dark plot that suggests their orders might come from a place of deceit. Nier: Automata’s celebrated story hits all the notes it’s meant to hit in this anime, which forges its own path to cover up the vast stretches of gameplay that lie between one in-game cutscene and the next. Part 2 of the anime is set to drop later this year.
Pokemon Origins
Getting into the mainline Pokemon anime is a mean feat if you’re planning to watch the entire series from beginning to end. Fans of the games might be better off watching this short but sweet four-part adaptation of Pokemon Red and Blue, following Red as he journeys through Kanto to survey Pokemon and battle in various Gyms. It doesn’t take too long for him to encounter the sinister Team Rocket, but his ultimate goal, as we all know, is to get to the Pokemon League and beat the Elite Four.
After that, maybe he’ll head on over to Mt. Silver and kick up his feet. Who knows, maybe some other trainer will swing by for a fight.
Steins;Gate
Steins;Gate is adapted from a visual novel, but most of its fans have likely never touched it. The series has outshone its source material to become one of the most acclaimed sci-fi anime in existence, thanks to its twisty time travel plot and eccentric characters. The story follows a scientist named Rintarou Okabe who begins to experience strange events after sending text messages into the past using a newfound gadget. Once he attracts the attention of a mysterious organisation called SERN, he’s thrown into a literal race against time to save his friends and the timeline.
Persona 4
Persona games are fantastic, but many regard Persona 4 to be the series standout in terms of story and characters alone. If you can’t be bothered playing through it, you might as well check out this incredibly faithful anime that adapts the main story while also expanding upon its protagonist, Yu Narukami. While Persona's protagonists are usually meant to be empty vessels for players to channel themselves into, Yu genuinely grows throughout this anime as he solves a series of mysterious murders with the help of his newfound friends.
Devil May Cry: The Animated Series
Not to be confused with Netflix’s upcoming Devil May Cry anime, this series is actually canon to the mainline games and takes place between the first and second games. Dante, Trish and Lady appear in this anime, as the former white-haired devil hunter struggles to keep his business afloat despite being riddled with debt. If you’ve played through all the games and simply want more Dante-led adventures, consider this a series of missing episodes.
Pokemon Concierge
We’ve put a second Pokemon spin-off on this list, only because it really is something special. This wholesome stop-motion animated series uses handcrafted figures and puppets to bring its Pokemon and humans to life, setting it apart from every other title here by visuals alone. The story follows a young woman named Haru, who becomes a concierge at an island Pokemon hotel resort and gradually learns to be a more laidback and restful version of herself by caring for her guests.
Honourable mention: DOTA: Dragon’s Blood
DOTA: Dragon’s Blood is worth mentioning here, despite the anime not getting a whole lot of love from us personally. What could have been DOTA’s Arcane is instead a good-enough adaptation of its world of fantasy and monsters, following Davion, Mirana and more characters from the game as they fight to stop a world-ending conflict. The series didn’t leave much of a mark on us, but it’s certainly better than the vast amounts of nothing fans of DOTA lore regularly put up with.
